6 Eckhart Tolle Quotes That Will Help You Realize the Power of Now

Fine-tune your ability to be present and awake in more and more moments

Do you know Eckhart Tolle’s awakening story?

Around the age of thirty, Tolle was anxious and depressed, as he had been for many years. Plagued by suicidal thoughts, he hit rock bottom. One moment he was longing for annihilation. In the next, he suddenly became curious about who or what within him was aware of the anxious and depressed thoughts whirling around in his head.

Were there actually two of him? If so, which one was real? Stunned by the realization, his thoughts momentarily stopped. He was pulled by a vortex of energy into what he then perceived as an inner void. He had no recollection of what happened after that.

Tolle awoke the next morning and saw the world in an entirely new way. Everything was fresh and pristine as if he’d never truly seen or heard before.

Awakening rarely happens so quickly, especially in someone who has no spiritual training whatsoever. Tolle’s experience shows us a profound transformation of consciousness is possible. Even we can achieve it because our true nature lies within each and every one of us.

Unlike Tolle, most of us need a progressive path. First, we learn to be here now. Only later do we engage in inquiry, asking questions intended to further reveal the true nature of mind—questions like “Who am I?”

But, The Power of Now breaks all previous rules and blends the basics of mindfulness with the most advanced approaches to meditation and awakening. Tolle’s instructions are similar to those I’ve received as a long-time student of Buddhism and mindfulness teacher, but without any of the cultural trappings.

Let’s dive in and explore six powerful quotes that will help you fine tune your ability to be present and awake in more and more moments.

1. “The good news is that you can free yourself from your mind. This is the only true liberation. You can take the first step right now. Start listening to the voice in your head as often as you can. Pay particular attention to any repetitive thought patterns, those old gramophone records that have been playing in your head perhaps for many years. This is what I mean by ‘watching the thinker,’ which is another way of saying: listen to the voice in your head, be there as the witnessing presence.”

When you first look at your mind, you’re likely to see millions of wild thoughts and what might seem like an impossible task at hand. That’s normal!

Traditional Tibetan Buddhist teachings say thoughts will at first arrive in a torrent like a steep and raging mountain waterfall. But eventually, with continued practice, your mind will become like a placid ocean with just a few waves now and then.

Don’t feel discouraged. With practice, your mind will gradually settle down.

2. “When you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially. That is to say, do not judge. Do not judge or condemn what you hear, for doing so would mean that the same voice has come in again through the back door. You’ll soon realize: there is the voice and here I am listening to it, watching it. This ‘I am’ realization, this sense of your own presence, is not a thought. It arises from beyond the mind.”

Judging your thoughts or your meditation only brings you back to thinking, adding one thought upon another until you have an entire train. You will, of course, fall into this trap. Your ego is happy to join you in meditation and will create as many obstacles as possible, judging being one of them.

No worries! When you notice yourself judging your thoughts or your meditation, use it as another opportunity to observe a thought and let it pass through the mind without adding on to it.

Mindfulness meditation is simply the repeated process of observing thoughts, emotions, and sensations, noticing when you’re distracted, and bringing your attention back to the object of your meditation—like the breath or the present moment.

Mindfulness is the foundation of meditation. Awareness of the awareness—the one that observes—takes us closer to inquiry, the next stage of meditation. That’s when we ask and reflect on questions like, “Who am I.” In combination with mindfulness, it brings insight and eventually awakening.

3. “So when you listen to a thought, you are aware not only of the thought but also of yourself as the witness of the thought. A new dimension of consciousness has come in. As you listen to the thought, you feel a conscious presence — your deeper self — behind or underneath the thought, as it were. The thought then loses its power over you and quickly subsides, because you are no longer energizing the mind through identification with it.”

Most people equate thoughts and emotions with their one true self. They can’t imagine anything else because no one has told them otherwise.

Meditation introduces you to a more fundamental part of you—an awareness that’s always present as thoughts and feelings merely come and go. The more you shift your attention from thoughts to this awareness, the more they begin to dissolve on their own.

When thoughts don’t get the attention they seek, they stop showing up as much. This is how mindfulness meditation brings calm.

But the purpose of mindfulness and meditation isn’t to eradicate thoughts. That would be impossible. Thoughts are the natural radiance of mind. Let them come and let them go. There’s no need to attach to them and allow them to dominate your well-being. Gently align with the awareness instead.

4. “Instead of ‘watching the thinker,’ you can also create a gap in the mind stream simply by directing the focus of your attention in the Now. Just become intensely conscious of the present moment. This is deeply satisfying thing to do. In this way, you draw consciousness away from mind activity and create a gap of no-mind in which you are highly alert and aware but not thinking. This is the essence of meditation.”

Researchers at Queen’s University have discovered the average person has 6,200 thoughts a day. Understandably, most of us believe thoughts are a continuous experience except for those rare moments when we blank out or space out.

But in fact, there are gaps between thoughts. The more you sit with you mind and simply observe, the more you’ll notice the gaps. They’ll be tiny at first, but then grow longer. Begin to rest in the gaps, alert and relaxed, and aware when a thought arrives and dissolves.

5. “Your mind is an instrument, a tool. It is there to be used for a specific task, and when the task is completed, you lay it down. As it is, I would say about 80 to 90 percent of most people’s thinking is not only repetitive and useless, but because of its dysfunctional and often negative nature, much of it is also harmful. Observe your mind and you will find this to be true. It causes a serious leakage of vital energy.”

You don’t need a scientist to tell you most of our thoughts are repetitive and useless and for some individuals, self-harming. Think of the negative self-talk that never seems to stop. Think of the angst you feel about a past event, when you can no longer change it. Think of the excitement and anxiety you feel about an anticipated event that may never occur.

Instead, learn to rest in present moment awareness. There’s so much more enjoyment waiting for you when you let go of excessive thinking. And as Tolle says, you’ll preserve your vital energy too.

6. “Thinking and consciousness are not synonymous. Thinking is only a small aspect of consciousness. Thought cannot exist without consciousness, but consciousness does not need thought.”

It may seem unbelievable, but you don’t need to think much at all.

Knowing is a fundamental quality of mind and I would add, the body. Your heart doesn’t require a thought to beat. As I write these words on the page, I don’t have to think—for the most part, they just arrive naturally.

Where do they come from? That’s the mystery!

Closing Thoughts

The Power of Now is a brilliant classic that explains mindfulness, meditation, and awakening in neutral terms. Whether you’re new to meditation or want to refine your practice further, I recommend it highly.

Tolle’s book reveals what you take to be your “self” is actually the one causing your pain, suffering, and discontent. It will introduce you to your own potential for a profound transformation of consciousness— one already available within you.

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